Sunday, 14 February 2016

We worked very hard this week in consolidating the routines and procedures of our classroom, in particular walking in a line quietly. I will say we have had varied success with this one but it is certainly less like herding cats now :)

I must say there have been many things I had forgotten about teaching a Prep class considering the last time I taught Prep was 6 years ago. One thing I had forgotten about was how much I need to TALK, how many times I am REPEATING an instruction! My voice was quite mangled by the end of the week and I have given it a good rest over the weekend much to the pleasure of my family :)

One of the other things I had forgotten about was how small their bladders are!!!! Of course once somebody says they need to go, they all need to go! Every. Single.Time.

On the academic side of things we have been learning about sounds and letters that our names begin with and identifying them in other people's names. We have also been incorporating sight words that begin with the sound. We will be doing a letter a day and then going back to look at them more in depth later on.

My kiddos have been awesome at doing rotations which has been the highlight of the week for me. I have had a range of activities that children rotate around including

fine motor

number/counting

shape

patterns

reading

ipads

phonics

Here are a few pics of the activities we have done so far.

These were some cards I made up quite a number of years ago but they still did the job of counting and recognising numbers and collections as well as 1 to 1 correspondence.

Penguins on ice! They luuurrved this activity! Roll the die and put that amount of penguins on.

I have been leaving the afternoons as Free Choice Play (but not really because I put the activities out that I want them to 'play' with). This also gives them a chance to have some quiet time as everyone has been so, so tired come the end of the day. I have also been using this time as a bit of one on one time with some of them to get to know them and do some quick assessments.

Next week we start our PIPS testing so it will be a busy couple of weeks for all of us :)

Saturday, 6 February 2016

Well I went back to school last week and started my new school year with a new grade level and a new team. This year I am teaching Preps (you might call it Kinder) and I am no longer job sharing. While I was very sad to leave behind my Grade 2 and Grade 3 teaching partners I am super excited to have my own space and my own group.

So I have a new teaching journey this year, I haven't taught Prep for 6 years so I am going into this new adventure with some knowledge but also a lot to learn :)

I wanted to share some classroom photos with you today. I love my room, it makes me smile.

This is our library corner, the lanterns and fluffy decorations now hang from the ceiling. In the cloud storage basket is lots of book buddies and puppets for the kiddos to read to.

This is going to be my Sounds and Seasons tree. I will change out the colours each season to match, there is also a little birds nest that I plan on putting our letter of the day in. The students will pull it out and then choose from a range of objects, student names and words that will go on the sounds tree. The tree is now in a pot to protect his roots :) Next to the tree is our class calender.

Looking towards our IWB and my maths shelf

Looking from the door back towards my desk

Our home corner is very popular! Once again the lanterns and fluffy decorations are now hanging up thanks to my lovely groundsman.

Our home for the rest of the year!

I'm really looking forward to sharing my journey with you this year and even though I am physically and mentally exhausted right now, I am also brimming with excitement for the amazing learning that is going to happen for all of us here.